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April 18, 2019

“American Spring LIVE” Celebrates National Citizen Science Day

On Saturday April 13, WNET partnered with the New York Botanical Garden to celebrate National Citizen Science Day. This was one of eleven large-scale family events being held by stations across the country to expand the reach of American Spring LIVE in local communities and drive tune-in.

More than 2,000 garden guests celebrated spring and had fun with citizen science. They learned how they can become involved with American Spring LIVE, played citizen science games and made spring crafts, and contributed data to citizen science projects.

In the Children’s Garden, WNET teamed up with high school garden volunteers to engage families in a variety of games and activities. Children made pine cone feeders and origami butterflies, joined in creating a community garden from recycled materials, listened to stories about spring, and lots more. Parents had to pull their children away from the activities to eat lunch!

WNET also guided visitors through participating in two featured American Spring LIVE citizen science projects. Members who routinely track the birds in the garden and new guests from around the tristate area participated in Celebrate Urban Birds. Their observations will help scientists better understand the value of green spaces for birds. Guests also reported the presence of leaves and flowers on lilacs for Track a Lilac. Their data contributed to a national database that will be used by researchers to better understand how plants change in response to changes in the seasons.

Phil Torres, field biologist for American Spring LIVE, went live on Facebook to talk about native plants and why they are so important in your own garden. He visited Track a Lilac on Instagram live to talk about citizen science projects that are easy to get started on.

American Spring LIVE airs on April 29, 30 & May 1 at 8:00pm on THIRTEEN.